David Patrick, who helped the LSU Tigers and Head Coach Johnny Jones bring in the second top five recruiting class in the last three years, will enter his fourth season on the staff of Coach Jones. This will be his second as Assistant Head Coach.

The 39-year-old Patrick has shown his ability at in-game and practice situations and has played a major part in helping LSU acquire nationally-ranked talent to come to LSU, including composite ranked No. 5 (2013) and No. 3 (2015).

Simmons, like Patrick, is a native of Australia and Simmons father, Dave, and Coach Patrick played together in the National Basketball League of Australia. Ben Simmons has played high school basketball his last three years in the states at Montverde Academy in Florida.

Patrick came to LSU in 2012 after a stint as a personnel scout with the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Patrick on the collegiate level had served for four years on the staff at Saint Mary's and one year at Nicholls State in Thibodeaux.

Others in the list of players that Patrick played a major role in helping LSU acquire for the Tigers include All-SEC players Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey. That pair was drafted in the 2016 NBA Draft with Martin the No. 25 pick of the Memphis Grizzlies and Mickey the No. 33 pick of the Boston Celtics. He has also helped with Coach Jones in attracting such players as Keith Hornsby, Josh Gray, Jalyn Patterson and Aaron Epps.

Patrick, who was born in Bermuda and grew up in Melbourne, Australia, is also using his lengthy international background to find future players for the Tigers.

He has worked with Jones through three seasons as the Tigers won 61 games as Jones became the first coach to have winning seasons at LSU in the opening three campaigns and he is part of the first coaching staff at LSU to take a team to post-season play in two of their first three seasons on the job.

At LSU, Patrick is involved in both game and practice coaching responsibilities for Coach Jones and also in involved in opponents scouting preparations for various games during the season.

Patrick elected to come to the United States in 1994 after a stint playing with the Australian Junior National Team. He ended up in Baton Rouge and played his senior year of high school basketball at Chapel Trafton where he led Trafton to the state quarterfinals and was chosen as the Louisiana Player of the Year.

He was elected the district's MVP, was a First Team All-Parish selection and was selected to participate in the Louisiana State High School All-Star Game. He was also a member of junior national teams in Australia and named as an All-Australian player from 1992-94.

It would be with his Trafton high school coach, J. P. Piper, where he would get his start as a college coach after Piper was named Nicholls State head coach in the 2005-06 season.

After high school, Patrick spent one season at Syracuse University where he was a member of the 1996 NCAA Final Four team that finished as the national runnerup. He then transferred to UL-Lafayette where he played for three seasons.

Following his collegiate playing days, Patrick went back to Australia where he played for the Canberra Cannons of the National Basketball League from 1999-01, being named Rookie of the Year in 2000. He then joined the Chester Jets of England's British Basketball League (2001-03) where he earned second team all-league honors. He concluded his professional career in the Spanish Professional League, playing for Castellion, 2003-05.

Patrick worked his first season with the Gaels as Director of Operations, before becoming a full-time assistant coach for three seasons on the Saint Mary's team.

The Gaels went to the NCAA Tournament in both 2008 and 2010 (losing in the round of 16). The team won a school-record 28 games in 2009 and 2010.

Patrick is married to the former Cassie Frank of Oberlin, Louisiana, and they have two daughters, Bailee (9) and Madison (5).